Need a small cardboard box but can't find one? Make one yourself, I'll show you how easy it is.

I ship a lot of transistor radios and came up with this design a while ago. I can't take full credit; I got the idea from a pinterest post, and improved on it.This design is for small boxes, especially for keeping the weight of a boxed item less than 16 oz, for first class shipping rates.

Find a large box to cut out your small box from. A Walmart SMALL box will provide enough cardboard for cutting out 4 small boxes. In this example, I'm 'recycling' a used USPS box.

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Measure the length (L), width (W) and depth (D) of the item AFTER it is wrapped for shipment. I use a bubble envelope as the last layer of wrapping on a transistor radio. Add about 1/2 inch to each of the measurements.

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Ready for some simple math?Your going to cut out a rectangle from the cardboard.The long side of the rectangle = (Width x 2) + (Depth X 3) For example, if width is 5 inches and depth is 2 inches, then the long side would be (5 x 2) + (2 x 3) = 16 inches.The short side of the rectangle = Length + (Depth x 2). For example, if length is 8 inches, then the short side would be 8 + (2 x 2) = 12 inches.

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On your cardboard piece, draw out the edges of the rectangle (16 x 12 inches in our example) and then draw the interior lines as shown in the design. Score the lines with your ball point pen. Draw Xs in the two corner boxes.

Cut out the rectangle and cut off the two squares with Xs.

Turn the rectangle longways in front of you. Fold up the closest edge along the horizontal, drawn line. Gently squeeze the fold to align along the drawn line. Fold up the other long drawn line.

Now, snip the lines to your fold, on both edges, this creates tabs for your box. See the picture above.

Turn the rectangle narrowways in front of you. Begin the fold upwards along each drawn line. Presto, the box emerges. I find it easier to tack the tabs in place with some tape. This helps to hold the box until I do the tapping on the outside.

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I tape all the cut edges and then run a band of tape around the shipping label and the whole box. Note the first class postage. This means I accomplished my goal of keeping the shipping weight less than 16 oz.

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This last picture shows that you can reverse the width and length formulas to make a long, narrow box. This is handy because you can flip the width and lengths to best fit the rectangle to the piece of cardboard which you have.

That was easy, wasn't it?(Some hints follow below this last picture.)

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Hints:

Add 1/2 inch to each L, W and D measurement of the wrapped item.Use a yard stick instead of a 12 inch ruler.An Ebay shipping label is 4 x 6.25 inches = make sure the length and width of the box is at least this sizeIf the depth x 2 is greater than the width, then the interior tabs will need to be shortened (after everything is cut out and folded) so they don't overlap